It was suggested that we have a pair-programming hack night. I think this would be great as a quarterly thing, but we might need a number of topics to pick from.

Some ideas:
* Write a Merb app of some sort
* Write a framework
* Pick a library then make a RubyGem out of it

This would certainly be timely and topical... a new framework or library comes out and we focus on using it and getting our hands dirty, etc.

Detailed talk walking through some code that is testing using mocks. Preferably, code and test pulled from a real-world project.

I'd love to see some new topics like:

* writing Rails plugins
* writing a web framework
* making Gem libraries
* making a test framework
* writing a regex parser/matcher
* coding style

Just thinking of non-Rails-specific talks... more pragmatic chats... explorative technologies... etc.

But we should definitely keep our ears close to the community ground and integrate it into our meetings.

Perhaps even a monthly report of interesting libraries?

Andy Stone's lockdown authentication and authorization system.

This could be pre-canned, with source and slide deck on github (or atlrug site) before the meeting, or it could be developed "collaboratively" .... however, it would be a good thing if the the presenter could finish solo just in case other jquery expertise is MIA that night.

http://soylentfoo.jnewland.com/articles/2008/12/16/rails-metal-a-micro-framework-with-the-power-of-rails-m

Jesse did a nice writeup on the rails metal microframework. Would be nice to hear him present.

Life after development. What to expect, server requirements, and load balancing. Recommendations for co-hosting rails applications and virtual hosts.

Advanced capistrano recipes, capistrano-ext gem

Links speaks for itself